Chapter V: Little Prince Del Paradiso

That day the botany class found their teacher in a flutter of excitement. There was a fresh, pink glow in the faded cheeks, and an unusual sparkle in the kindly eyes. She seated herself in the episcopal chair, lifted her lorgnette, and began to arrange the specimens for the day's lesson, but her hand trembled so that she could scarcely adjust the microscope, and the papers on which her notes were written sifted through her fingers and were strewn in confusion on the floor.

"Are you ill, Miss Prillwitz?" Adelaide asked, in alarm.

"No, Miss Armstrong," replied the princess, "it is not a painful in my system, and it is not a sorry; it is a pleasant. I shall expect to myself a company, and this is to me so seldom that I find myself _egare_--what you call it?--scatter? sprinkled?--as to my understanding."

We all looked our interest, and Winnie ventured to ask--"One of your relations, Miss Prillwitz?"

"Yes," replied the little lady; "he is of my own family, though to see him I have never ze pleasure. It ees ze little Prince del Paradiso."

We girls pinched each other under the table, while Milly murmured, "A prince! How perfectly lovely!"

"Yes," replied Miss Prillwitz; "ze birthright to ziss little poy is one great, high, nobilitie, _la plus haute noblesse_, but he know nossing of it, nossing whateffer. He haf ze misfortune to be exported from his home when one leetle child; he haf been elevated by poor peoples to think himself also a poor. He know nossing of ze estates what belong his family, and better he not know until he make surely his title, and he make to himself some education which shall make him suit to his position."

"How did you know about this little stolen prince?" Emma Jane asked.

"I receive message from his older bruzzer to take him to my house _provisionellement_, till his rights and his--his--what you call--his sameness?"

"You mean his identity?"

"Yes, yes, his die entity can be justly prove."

"It seems to me," said Witch Winnie, impulsively, "that he can't be a very kind elder brother to be so indifferent."

"My dear child, you make my admiration with what celeritude you do arrive always at exactly ze wrong conclusion. Ze prince haf made great effort to recover his little bruzzer, but he must guard himself from ze false claimants, ze impostors."

"Then the little boy who is coming to you," said Emma Jane, "may not be the real prince, after all?"

"That is a possible," Miss Prillwitz admitted, "but it is not a probable. Somesing assure me zat he s'all prove his nobility."

"How very interesting," said Milly. "Was he stolen away from home by gypsies?"

"No, my child, he was not steal. He wandered himself away from his fazzer's house and was lost."

"How old is he now?"

"Twelve year."

Witch Winnie started; that was just Jim Halsey's age, and what a difference in the destiny awaiting the two boys! One the son of a king, the other of a criminal.

"Will you to see ze little chamber of ze petit prince?" asked Miss Prillwitz.

We were all overjoyed by the suggestion, and the eager little woman led us to a room just under the roof, with a dormer-window looking out upon the roof of the church.

Milly ran directly to this window, and drawing aside the curtains looked out, but started back again half frightened, for a carved gargoyle under the eaves was very near and leered at her with a malicious, demoniacal expression. He was a grotesque creature with bat wings, lolling tongue, and long claws, but harmless enough, for the doves perched on his head and preened their iridescent plumage in the sunshine. The church roof just here was a wilderness of flying buttresses and pinnacles; the chimes were still far overhead, and rang out, as we entered the chambers, my favorite hymn--"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear."

I have not yet described the room itself. We all exclaimed at its quaint beauty as we entered.

It was papered with an old-fashioned vine pattern, the green foliage twined about a slender trellis, and this gave the room, which was really quite small, the effect of an arbor with space beyond. There was a patch of dark green carpet with a mossy pattern before the bed, which was very simple and dressed in white. In the window recess was a dry-goods box, upholstered in a fern-patterned chintz of a restful green tint, and serving, with its cushions, both as a divan and as a chest for clothing. There was a little corner wash-stand with a toilet set decorated with water-lilies and green lily-pads, and there was a little sliding curtain of green China silk with a shadow-pattern at the window, while through the uncurtained upper space one saw, beyond the church roof, the trees of the park.

"O Miss Prillwitz!" I exclaimed, "it is just Aurora Leigh's room over again. You modeled it on Mrs. Browning's description, did you not?--

"'I had a little chamber in the house,
As green as any privet-hedge a bird
Might choose to build in ...
... the walls
Were green, the carpet was pure green;
the straight
Small bed was curtained greenly,
and the folds
Hung green about the window,
which let in
A dash of dawn dew from its greenery,
the honeysuckle.'"

"I haf nefer ze pleasure to know zat room," said Miss Prillwitz, her eyes kindling.

"How perfectly sweet!" exclaimed Adelaide. "It is like 'a lodge in some vast wilderness.' I didn't know that there was a place in New York so like the country."

"Will the prince study botany with us?" Milly asked, as we descended the stairs.

"I fear he is not ready for ze botany. His education haf been neglect. But you s'all see him oftenly. I must beg you not to tell him zat he is a prince; zis must not divulge to him until ze proper time."

"And then," added Emma Jane, "it would be cruel to excite hopes which may be doomed to disappointment."

The princess smiled. "I do not fear zat," she said. "And now, young ladies, I must make you my excuse, and beg Miss Armstrong she s'all hear ze class ze remains of ze hour; I must go to ze market for prepare ze young prince his supper."

She hurried away, and we attempted to turn our minds to our lesson. Adelaide had just exclaimed that in botany the term _hop_ signified small, and _dog_ large, but she broke off the statement with the exclamation, "And do you see, girls, what this proves?"

"That dog-roses are large roses," replied Emma Jane.

"That the Chinese laundry man around the corner, Hop Sin, is a little sinner," said Winnie.

"No, no, I don't mean that, but she said that the Prince del Paradiso was related to her; then, of course, she must belong to the Paradiso family as well, and what we have so long suspected is really true. She is a genuine princess, and probably the daughter of a king."

"I am not so sure of that," replied Emma Jane.

"Do you suspect Miss Prillwitz of being an impostor?" Adelaide asked, coldly.

"Certainly not," replied Emma Jane; "but in many European countries every son of a prince is called a prince, instead of the eldest son only, as in England, and all the sons of all the younger sons are princes, and so on to the last descendant; and I presume it is so with the daughters as well; so that the title must often exist where there are no estates."

"But Miss Prillwitz said that the Prince del Paradiso was heir to immense estates," Milly insisted.

"But that proves nothing in her own case," Adelaide admitted. "Some day, perhaps she will tell us more about herself, since she has begun to open her heart to us."

At that moment the door-bell rang, and as the princess kept no servant, Winnie went to the door. She was gone a long time, and came back looking grave and distraught--giving an evasive answer when we asked her who had called. I wondered at this because, as I sat nearest the door, I had overheard a part of the conversation, and knew that it referred to the little boy who was expected. "He cannot come," a voice had said; "he has a situation where he can learn a trade." This was of so much interest to us all that I wondered why Winnie did not immediately report it.

As soon as we returned to the school she obtained an interview with Madame, and permission to see Mrs. Halsey in reference to the Celeste situation; Madame stipulating that she must not ask this favor for a long time, as she did not like to have her pupils frequent the tenement district. I offered to go with Winnie, and was surprised that she declined my company. She returned glowing with suppressed excitement.

"Mrs. Halsey has accepted Madame Celeste's offer," she exclaimed; "she leaves the court to-morrow, let us hope for good and all. O girls, it is a horrible place! I saw worse sights than when I was there before."

"And Jim?" we asked.

"Jim is provided for. We are to pay three dollars a week for him for the present, until Mrs. Halsey gets on her feet."

"Did she find a good place for him?"

"An excellent place; but you must not ask me another question, and if any mysterious circumstances should come to your observation within a few days, you are not to say a thing, or even look surprised. Promise, every one of you."

"A mystery! how delightful!" exclaimed Milly. "It's almost as good as the little prince. You can rely on us; we will help you, Winnie, whatever it is, for we know it's all right if it's your doing."

Emma Jane was not present, and I remarked that, while the rest of us would believe in Winnie without understanding her, and even in spite of the most suspicious circumstances, I was not sure that we could trust Emma Jane so far.

"Emma Jane will see nothing to suspect, and Milly, I know, will stand by me. It's only you two that I am afraid of--Adelaide, because she has seen Jim; and Tib, from her natural smartness in smelling out a secret."

"Whatever it is, Winnie, we believe you could never do anything very bad," said Adelaide.

"But I have," Winnie replied; "something just reckless. I'm in for the worst scrape of my life, and just as I was trying so hard to be good. I shall never be anything but a malefactor, and maybe get expelled, and throw the dear Amen Corner into disgrace. I'd better have staid queen of the Hornets, for I shall be nothing but Witch Winnie to the end of the chapter."